He Gave Us Prophets
© 2012 by Third Millennium Ministries
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Contents
- Introduction...... 1
- Job Titles...... 1
- Primary Term1
- Secondary Term2
- Job Transitions...... 4
- Pre-Monarchy5
- Monarchy5
- Exile6
- Post-Exile6
- Job Expectations...... 7
- Popular Models7
- Medium/Shaman7
- Fortune Teller7
- Covenant Model8
- Past Understandings8
- Contemporary Understandings8
- Conclusion ...... 10
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He Gave Us ProphetsLesson Two: A Prophet’s Job
INTRODUCTION
In my culture, when two people meet each other for the first time, the first thing they do is to exchange names. But very soon they usually ask this question: “What job do you do?” In many respects, that's what we're going to be asking about prophets in this lesson.We want to ask: “What kind of job did OldTestament prophets do?”
We have entitled this lesson “A Prophet’s Job.” As we explore the job of a prophet, we will look at three items: first, the job titles of prophets; second, the job transitions — the changes that took place in prophecy — and then finally the job expectations of prophets— what God expected his prophets to do.
Let’s begin this lesson by exploring the job titles of Old Testament prophets.
JOB TITLES
In everyday life we call people by many titles; in fact, we might call the very same person by many different titles. For example, we might call one man a pastor, an athlete, a musician. Why? Because people do all sorts of things in life. Well, in the Old Testament, the same kind of thing is true about Old Testament prophets. They’re called by many different titles.
To explore the titles that the Old Testament uses for prophets we’re going to look at two basic categories. First, we’ll look at the primary term used for prophet in the Bible.And second, we'll take a look at an assortment of secondary terms which the Bible uses to designate this office.Let's look first at the primary term for prophets.
Primary Term
When most English-speaking Christians hear the word “prophet,” they tend to think that a prophet is someone who simply predicts the future, much like a fortune-teller or a psychic. It’s true that prophets in the Old Testament foretold the future, but their role was much broader than this.In fact, we get a clue that even the English word “prophet” has the potential of meaning more than someone who simply predicts the future.
English speakers get their term "prophet" from the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. We often don't realize it, but the Greek word prophētēs (προφήτης) from which we derive our English word “prophet” is a rather flexible term.This term combines two elements. The second element of the Greek wordprophētēs is phētēs (φητης) and it denotes the concept of speaking. It suggests that prophets did a lot of talking and writing. This is plain enough, but the first element of prophētēs, pro(pro), may point in two directions. On the one hand it may mean to “speak beforehand” or “predict,” and on the other hand, it may simply mean to “speak forth" or to “proclaim” something that is not even a prediction at all. A prophet then can be someone who predicts or simply someone who proclaims. In reality, Old Testament prophets did both. They spoke of the future, but they also spoke boldly about their own days. The basic title “prophet” points to the variety of jobs that these people performed.
When we look at the Hebrew Old Testament, we discover that the term “prophet” had an even broader meaning. The Greek word prophētēs (προφήτης) is the term used in the Septuagint to translate a particular Hebrew term, nābîʾ(נָבִיא).From parallels to other languages of the ancient Near East, we know that the term nābîʾ means a “called person.” It’s a very flexible term, simply indicating that a prophet was someone who was called by God. They were not ordinary people; God called them out for many special services.
In addition to the primary designation of a prophet as a nābîʾ, a number of secondary terms also come to be associated with the office of prophet in the Old Testament. We'll take a look at several of these important secondary terms.
Secondary Terms
In the first place, prophets were also frequently designated by the term ‘ebed (עֶבֶד), or servant. Many different kinds of people were called servants in the Old Testament, and the term always indicates some kind of subservience and humility. But this title is important for prophets, because it often bore the connotations of an official or an officer, especially an officer of a royal court. Even Israel’s kings are called servants of God because they were the vassal kings who held official positions in God’s heavenly, royal courts.
Prophets play special roles in God’s royal court. They served as representatives of the heavenly throne. They were official servants who spoke in the name of the Great King. This is why Daniel confessed that it was Israel’s great sin to ignore the prophets. Listen to the way he spoke in Daniel 9:6:
We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name (Daniel 9:6).
The prophets were not ordinary people. They represented the throne of heaven as servants of the royal court of God.
Beyond this, two closely related Hebrew words point to another special role which prophets played. The Hebrew termrō’eh(רֹאֶה) means “seer” and is closely associated with the term ḥōzeh (חֹזֶה) which means a “seer” or an “observer.” According to 1 Samuel 9:9 prophets were first called seers before the rise of kingship in Israel. Formerly in Israel, the prophet of today used to be called a seer. In a similar way, 2 Samuel 24:11 tells us that Gad, who was a prophet of David's time, was also known as a ḥōzeh, or a seer —
The word of the Lord [came] to Gad the prophet, David’s seer (2 Samuel 24:11).
What do these titles for a prophet suggest about their job? These designations pointed to a very important experience which prophets often had as they received God’s word. The prophetsare called seers because they were given the privilege of looking into the heavenly places. In the book of 2 Chronicles, the prophet Micaiah ben-Imla was challenged to explain his prophecy. In response, Micaiah described a vision of heaven that he had received. In 2 Chronicles 18:18-19, we read the prophet’s description of what he saw in heaven:
I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, “Who will [lure] Ahab, King of Israel, into attacking…?” One suggested this, and another that (2 Chronicles 18:18-19).
This is a remarkable passage, showing why prophets were called seers. They looked into the heavenly realms. They heard God speak. They watched actions take place. They interacted with God in the heavenly places.And as we learn about the prophets, it’s important to remember that these kinds of heavenly experiences were central to their ministries.
Another term occasionally used for prophets is the Hebrew wordtsōpheh (צֹפֶה), or a “watchman,” “one who keeps guard.” This metaphor compared prophets with the service of a normal watchman in ancient Israel.Cities in the ancient world had watchmen who scanned the horizon for expected and unexpected visitors.Prophets did the same by watching out for enemies and watching for the approach of God in blessing and in judgment.For example, in Ezekiel 3:17, God spoke to the prophet Ezekiel in this way:
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me (Ezekiel 3:17).
In biblical times, advanced warning of an enemy’s approach or a friend’s visit was important to the affairs of a city. God revealed that his prophets often watched for impending doom and approaching blessings so that the people could have opportunity to prepare themselves. Prophets looked out and saw what was coming in dreams and in visions, and then they turned to the people and announced what was on the horizon.
Prophets were also occasionally designated by the Hebrew word mal’āk(מַלְאָךְ) which means “messenger.” In the ancient world of the Old Testament there were no telephones, no e-mail, no televisions. The only way to communicate over long distances was through human messengers, and messengers received a communiqué from one person, often a king or a military general, and would bear that message to its recipients. Very often messengers were used when it was urgent to communicate. The Old Testament designates prophets by this term because they received messages from God and bore those urgent communications to the people of God. For instance, when some Judahites returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile, they were tremendously discouraged. So, the Lord called Haggai, the prophet, and sent him with a message. For this reason, Haggai 1:13 speaks of the prophet in this way:
Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people:“I am with you,” declares the Lord (Haggai 1:13).
The designation of “messenger” makes it clear that prophets did not bring their own ideas to the people of God. On the contrary, they served as Yahweh’s envoys and spoke on the behalf of God.
Finally, we should mention that prophets were sometimes calledʾishʾělohim, (אֱלֹהִ֖יםאִישׁ) a “man of God.”The designation “man of God” may also be translated “man from God.”This title pointed to the special sacred role which prophets had. They were selected and sent by God. As such, prophets had special protection from God, and they had special authorization. In 2 Kings 1:12 the prophet Elijah revealed the significance of this term. There we read:
“If I am a man of God … may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!” Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men (2 Kings 1:12).
Elijah’s divine authorization is demonstrated by a miraculous display of fire against those who opposed the prophet. Elijah was no ordinary man. He was sent from God. God was on his side.
So we have seen that Old Testament prophets had many designations and titles. Our survey has only touched on a handful of these various titles that are used in the Old Testament. But we can see one thing clearly — prophets were much more than what most people think. They were not mere psychics or fortune-tellers. They had a variety of titles because they had a variety of services. And if we want to understand Old Testament prophecy, we have to broaden our idea of what a prophet is.
JOB TRANSITIONS
So far we’ve looked at a variety of job titles that Old Testament prophets bore. Now we should turn to our second topic: what transitions took place in the prophet’s job? I’ve had lots of jobs in my life, and there has been one thing that’s been true about every single one of them — they’ve all changed.I’ve worked for a while and the next thing I know, the job is different than it was before. Well, something similar is true of Old Testament prophets. They had a job to do, but as the history of the Bible developed, their jobs went through transitions.
To understand how the job of Old Testament prophets went through transitions, it helps to think of prophecy in four historical stages: the pre-monarchical period — the time before kings arose in Israel; the monarchical period; the exilic period — the time of exile from the land; and the post-exilic period — when Israel returned from exile.
Pre-Monarchy
Let’s look first at prophets during the pre-monarchical period. When we explore the times before there was a king in Israel, it's easy to see several features of prophecy.First, there were relatively few prophets during this time. The term nābîʾ does not appear very often in the books of Genesis to Judges. There are less than twenty references in these books, and some of them concern future prophets to come. So there were very few prophets during the early times before there was a king.
Beyond this, during the pre-monarchical period, prophets exhibited a wide variety of relatively informal services. Much of their work seems to have been temporary, designed for particular situations and particular times. The term nābîʾ is used in the pre-monarchical period to signify a wide variety of people doing many different things.
Monarchy
Leaving behind the early period of biblical history before there were kings in Israel, we come upon a dramatic shift in Old Testament prophecy. The monarchical period brought many changes to the nation of Israel, including changes in the role of prophets. In contrast to the pre-monarchical period, prophets appear in large numbers during this time. Time and again we read of this prophet and that prophet in books like Samuel and Kings and Chronicles. In fact, there are more prophets in the Bible during this period of time than any other.
Along with the increase in the number of prophets during the monarchical times, prophecy also became much more formal. With the rise of kingship, God gave prophets the job of focusing on the actions of kings and making sure that they were obedient to the Law of Moses. Although God wanted Israel to have a human king, he also knew that fallen human kings would present a serious danger to the nation. Human beings simply do not know how to handle lots of power. They usually become corrupt and abuse those who are under their authority.
In the case of Israel's history, when kings became corrupt, it was very dangerous because their actions often brought judgment from God on the whole nation. For this reason, Moses laid down a number of restrictions on the power of kings. In Deuteronomy 17:14-20 Moses sets forth a number of restrictions on the kings of Israel: Israel must only have a king whom the Lord chooses. The king must be from among your brothers — in other words, an Israelite. The king must not acquire great numbers of horses. He must not return to Egypt. The king must not take many wives — and by this Moses probably meant many foreign wives. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. The king must write for himself a copy of the Law of Moses. And the king must read the law all the days of his life. He must follow carefully all the words of the Law of Moses.And he must not consider himself better than his brothers.